I was wondering what everyones opinion is of the oil life monitor system. I myself am still going to go by mileage but I was reading about it today and GM says it averages from 6000 mi to 9000 mi between oil changes but can go as high as 12000 mi. I like the idea behind it but am still skeptical of it.
Oil Life Monitor
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Most everything I have read indicates the GM software which is behind its OLM is first rate. Having said that some people are experiencing less than stellar used oil analyses for this 3.6L engine even though the OLM indicates there is much oil life left. Until we get a better handle on this situation I will not have it go below 50%.
Like he said- until you get some analysis done on your engine- and you know how engine oil will degrade-Id do changes on a more regular basis.
Since I dont have a traverse yet- I cant tell you how often I would do it with this engine. But Ive seen some analysis posted online and they do seem to go through the oil quickly.... NOW- it could be that the analysis weve seen are those of people who are posting because they were less than stellar.... But maybe weve yet to see many more where they are very good... We just need to see more analysis reports with the DI 3.6 to get a very good idea of how these engines are as a whole... we cant just base it all on a few posted bad results when for all we know there are 100 good results.
Being that the Traverse is in its 1st model year- it is still new.... we can only hope more members get oil analysis done....
On that note---- ill give you an example. I have an 03 Trailblazer with the 4.2 l inline 6.
I do follow the OLM. (I dont have the DIC to show %- but only have the light to show that I now need an oil change).
An oil and filter change on this Inline 6- requires 7 quarts of oil. In about 1500 miles--- I will hit 150,000. The engine still runs great, pulls hard, and idles smoothly. I just had a California smog inspection- and it passed with flying colors.
How long does the oil last in my car before I change it..... 10,500 to 11,500 miles..... and I only use regular oil!.
The engine uses practically no oil between those 11,000 miles. Ive never had to add any. and when I drain the oil- I remove about 6.5 quarts.
So--- for this 4.2 L engine-- I really trust the OLM.
So when I get my Traverse-- I will base my oil changes on detailed oil analysis I get....
below are 2 oil analysis I had done on my Trailblazer.
One was shy of 104,000... the other was at 146,XXX.
The reason I did one shy of 150,000 is because if it came back good--- I would keep the Trailblazer-- and buy a Traverse.. if it came back bad--I would trade her in as a down on the traverse.... It came back good---- so im keeping the Trailblazer
Note that silicon came in higher than before--- This lead me to look and I did find that the cover to the air filter was not seated right- and allowing some dust to get in.
so--- get some oil analysis done- and then go from there. The OLM is very precise on my trailblazer.
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Since I dont have a traverse yet- I cant tell you how often I would do it with this engine. But Ive seen some analysis posted online and they do seem to go through the oil quickly.... NOW- it could be that the analysis weve seen are those of people who are posting because they were less than stellar.... But maybe weve yet to see many more where they are very good... We just need to see more analysis reports with the DI 3.6 to get a very good idea of how these engines are as a whole... we cant just base it all on a few posted bad results when for all we know there are 100 good results.
Being that the Traverse is in its 1st model year- it is still new.... we can only hope more members get oil analysis done....
On that note---- ill give you an example. I have an 03 Trailblazer with the 4.2 l inline 6.
I do follow the OLM. (I dont have the DIC to show %- but only have the light to show that I now need an oil change).
An oil and filter change on this Inline 6- requires 7 quarts of oil. In about 1500 miles--- I will hit 150,000. The engine still runs great, pulls hard, and idles smoothly. I just had a California smog inspection- and it passed with flying colors.
How long does the oil last in my car before I change it..... 10,500 to 11,500 miles..... and I only use regular oil!.
The engine uses practically no oil between those 11,000 miles. Ive never had to add any. and when I drain the oil- I remove about 6.5 quarts.
So--- for this 4.2 L engine-- I really trust the OLM.
So when I get my Traverse-- I will base my oil changes on detailed oil analysis I get....
below are 2 oil analysis I had done on my Trailblazer.
One was shy of 104,000... the other was at 146,XXX.
The reason I did one shy of 150,000 is because if it came back good--- I would keep the Trailblazer-- and buy a Traverse.. if it came back bad--I would trade her in as a down on the traverse.... It came back good---- so im keeping the Trailblazer
Note that silicon came in higher than before--- This lead me to look and I did find that the cover to the air filter was not seated right- and allowing some dust to get in.
so--- get some oil analysis done- and then go from there. The OLM is very precise on my trailblazer.
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I have never had an oil analysis done on my Grand Am nor would I even know what all of those numbers mean. All I can say is that I bought my Grand Am from a family member who only changed the oil when the "change oil" light would come on and I have only done the same thing and the car has I think about 78,000 miles on it and I have never had one problem with the engine. I realize that 78,000 miles isn't a lot of miles, so take this post for what it's worth.
I plan on changing the oil in the Traverse only when the vehicle tells me to. Until Chevy or GM tell me something else works better, I'm going to stick with what they recommend.
I plan on changing the oil in the Traverse only when the vehicle tells me to. Until Chevy or GM tell me something else works better, I'm going to stick with what they recommend.
sounds good.
As you saw my post above. The OLM on my trailblazer is right on with an actual Oil analysis.
Im hoping more Traverse owners get oil analysis done so we can see how the DI engine treats the oil....
Im also curious to see if the 2010's have any type of upgrades to the algorithm of the OLM...
but we wont know this until more 2010's appear and get Oil analysis done.
As you saw my post above. The OLM on my trailblazer is right on with an actual Oil analysis.
Im hoping more Traverse owners get oil analysis done so we can see how the DI engine treats the oil....
Im also curious to see if the 2010's have any type of upgrades to the algorithm of the OLM...
but we wont know this until more 2010's appear and get Oil analysis done.
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Rob, be sure to post the results as soon as you get them. This is the factory fill oil...right?
I will. I'll scan the document and post the whole thing so everyone can see it. Yes, it is the factory fill and I changed it at 2377 mi. This should give us a good baseline on the factory fill. I know other people have sent the FF in before but with much less mileage.
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I only get the email with pdf attachment. I have been doing UOAs on and off since 2006. I dont recall ever getting the hard copy by snail mail.rbarrios said:
thanks for posting.
Seems nothing is out of the ordinary... just the typical engine break in stuff...
Next time you do your oil analysis---- pay the extra and have them do the oil life analysis.....
This will tell you how much life the oil actually has--- and you can compare that to the % on the OLM indicated on your dash.
Seems nothing is out of the ordinary... just the typical engine break in stuff...
Next time you do your oil analysis---- pay the extra and have them do the oil life analysis.....
This will tell you how much life the oil actually has--- and you can compare that to the % on the OLM indicated on your dash.
I'm doing my next change at 5000 mi (which will be 2600 mi since the last one). Then I will be doing it every 5k after that. Probably when I go 5000 mi on a single OC I will pay the extra to check the oil life. For years I have done 5k oil changes on my cars with Mobil 1 and I will do the same for this one. I'm changing at the 5k mark to get on that schedule and to do one more early change to see if I still have a lot of junk coming out. The results weren't as bad as I thought they would be. Like Copperbeech said, he did his OA at 500 mi. and we expected the numbers to be 4x what he had and it wasn't.
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